06 January 2016, Sweetcrude, Houston — Local and international financial market products and services update.NIGERIA: The Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde, said Tuesday that her organization wants to collaborate with Nigeria in plugging leaking of funds through corruption and to trace looted money.
Lagarde, on a visit to the African economic giant, said Nigeria has enough of a financial war-chest to overcome the current economic challenge without resorting to the IMF for financial support.
She said at a press conference that during her meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari, she told him that the IMF would be willing to assist the Nigerian government in plugging revenue leakages, tracing stolen funds and restructuring its tax system.

FIXED INCOME: The OMO auction announcement yesterday caused an outbreak of sellers reducing their exposures. This sell-off lasted till the result of the OMO auction was released.
We expect the mixed sentiments to continue as market awaits some direction for the year. Eyes are on the outcome of the PMA today and the visit of the IMF Director to the country.

COMMODITIES: Last year’s best-performing commodity is poised to become the market’s worst nightmare.
After the longest rally in London cocoa futures since at least 1989, farmers from Ivory Coast to Peru are preparing to revive supplies in the 2016-17 season that starts in October, creating a surplus that Rabobank International says will be the largest in six years. With demand slowing, the bank is most bearish about prices for the chocolate ingredient this year among the dozen agricultural commodities it tracks.

CHINA: The Yuan sank to a five-year low after China’s central bank set the currency’s reference rate at an unexpectedly weak level, a sign that policy makers are becoming more tolerant of depreciation as intervention costs rise and economic growth slows.
The People’s Bank of China cut its daily fixing to the lowest level since April 2011, weaker than the Yuan’s last onshore closing level. The currency fell 0.6 percent in Hong Kong’s freely traded market as well as in Shanghai, with both exchange rates dropping to their weakest levels since at least March 2011. The gap between the two rates reached a record before the start of onshore trading on Wednesday.

GERMANY: Germany’s flexible formula for economic success is still delivering.
The country’s exporters are increasing shipments to the U.S. and the euro area, tapping into an accelerating recovery in advanced economies just as growth in emerging Asia slows. Paired with robust domestic demand benefiting from record-low unemployment and expansive monetary policy, the German economy stands to drive growth in the 19-nation currency bloc and outperform both France and Italy again.
Germany’s pillar of strength is a versatile manufacturing sector that guided Europe’s largest economy through the Great Recession by shifting its attention to faster growing eastern markets.
Macro Economic Indicators
Inflation rate (Y-o-Y) for November 2015 9.37%
Monetary Policy Rate current 11.00%
FX Reserves (Bn $) as at December 17, 2015 28.978